


And You're the Only Bait in Town

by DroppedAllTheseOreos



Series: Odd Discoveries [1]
Category: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Biting, Cis Saiba Nico, Exophilia, F/F, Grinding, Non-Binary Poppy Pipopapo, Trans Character, Trans Poppy Pipopapo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:01:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24638011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DroppedAllTheseOreos/pseuds/DroppedAllTheseOreos
Summary: Nico's part of a research team studying sharks out in the Pacific. It's her turn to go into the shark cage and take videos when she makes a buck wild discovery
Relationships: Saiba Nico/Poppy Pipopapo
Series: Odd Discoveries [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949182
Comments: 6
Kudos: 8
Collections: Oreos' Fanfic Gauntlets





	And You're the Only Bait in Town

**Author's Note:**

> Title is lyrics from Justin McElroy's "Tribute to Jimmy Buffett"

"You sure you're gonna be okay?" Taiga asked for what had to be the hundredth time that day.

"Ugh, yes _dad,"_ Nico rolled her eyes, "I've only been down here every other day this month."

Taiga tried rattling the bars on the shark cage, making sure everything was secure, "I know Hojo's unit's been seeing some weird stuff, so I just wanted to make sure you're not having second thoughts."

"Ah yes, because I'm supposed to believe there's a pink shark somewhere around here. You sure they all passed their eye exams?" Nico smirked as she stepped inside.

Taiga walked over to help her in and met her eyes seriously, "Just be careful down there, okay?"

Nico sighed but gave him a genuine grin, "Okay. I'll do my best. See you soon."

She could see the way he didn't believe her in the worry lines on his face and shook her head, switching her focus to getting ready. Respirator on, make sure her GoPro was working, then fully submerge herself in the cage. They'd been out here researching shark behavior for a few months now, and everyone on the team had been diving for years before, but it didn't stop Taiga from worrying about anyone who went out. It was annoying that he was still like this. He almost lost his partner to a dive with an experimental shark cage so his anxiousness made sense. But that had been years ago, and while Maki wasn't working out at sea anymore, he happily worked with and supported them from the main research facility.

Whatever, she could tattle on him to Maki for being a worrywart when they were all back onshore. For now, she had sharks to research. They seemed to have grown accustomed to the boat, because they swam around it easily, now. She started recording trying to get as nice footage as she could while watching them circle around. Time felt weird under here. It seemed to go by so quickly since it was much more enjoyable to wait down here than on land, an hour could feel like minutes when she first dived down.

About a quarter into her air tank’s supply, she saw something strange just out of the corner of her sight. She moved to that side of the cage quickly and saw the tailfin of something much lighter than the sharks they were familiar with in this area. After looking in every possible direction, she couldn’t find anything so she went back to the front of the cage, but kept a sharper eye out for any sort of anomalies.

It wasn't too long before she saw it again, and she let out a muffled cry into her respirator. Whatever Hojo and his team saw wasn't just a pink shark, it was a wholeass merperson. They paused a few meters out from the cage and floated in place for a while, just watching, letting Nico, and hopefully her GoPro, get a good look. Their body was squishy; Nico could spot some definition of powerful muscle, but it was softened and rounded out by layers of fat, probably to keep them warm, like a porpoise. Their whole body was colored in pink hues, bright on their back and sides, striped like a tiger shark in a darker, muted red color. And the front of their body was a lighter peach, starting from right under their bottom lip and trailing all the way to the end of their tail like the underbellies of regular sharks. In place of pectoral fins on the torso, they grew out of the merperson's forearms, but the placement of their pelvic fins seemed to be normal.

Nico watched the merperson continue to stare, seemingly sizing her up, and she returned the gaze aggressively, unsure of exactly what to do here, but not wanting to seem weak or like prey. The merperson's mouth fell open softly, surprised by the reaction at first, until the look turned into a wide, delighted grin. It was unnerving, but Nico tried not to let it look like it fazed her. So she watched as they swam a few circles around the cage, doing a few corkscrew spins as they did, then swam a few laps in an infinity shape in front of her. They were so graceful, it was almost hypnotizing to watch. The little display lowered Nico's guard enough that she almost got bit when the merperson stopped their little pattern and zoomed forward, their jaws snapping around the cage where Nico's hand just was. Their teeth scraped against the metal as they gnawed on the bar for a little bit, until they pulled back, realizing they hadn't grabbed onto her, pouting a little.

Their cheeks puffed out and they crossed their arms huffily, it was way too human to the point where Nico was finding it disturbing but cute. The shark seemed to notice and curled their clawed, webbed fingers in a "come here" motion. Nico warily approached the front of the cage again, keeping her arms inside. The merperson grinned and swam right up to the bars again, pressing up against it and baring their neck. Suddenly things started to click together for Nico. Tiger shark courting, or what little was known about it, was all about biting the mate. Receiving partners in shark species with biting rituals often had skin two or three times thicker than the one giving it out.

This merperson wanted to mate with her? But why? And she couldn't take out her respirator, as tempting as this seemed. Because as much as she didn't want to admit it for fear of being shallow... this merperson had kind of already charmed her. Something about her little gestures and big, bright expressions was drawing her in.

She resisted the urge to answer the courting gesture for as long as she could, but the merperson gave her big doe eyes, almost pleading, destroying the last of her resolve. So Nico stepped forward and took her respirator out, reaching her head through the bars to bite at the merperson's skin as hard as she could.

The gills right near her cheek fluttered and she swore she could hear a slight, excited gasp. But before she could fully process, the shark was taking up her hand and biting down on her arm through the body suit. Nowhere near as hard as before, but still enough to hurt and Nico winced. The merperson seemed to notice, and let up, tilting their head curiously. Nico let go of their neck, trying to will away the pained expression but the merperson’s face dropped in a mix of surprise and sadness, and they swooped in, sticking their face between the bars to gently leave a trail of bites all up and down her neck, slowly pulling her closer to the bars of the cage until they were both pressed flush.

Nico did her best to hold her breath, but couldn't help accidentally sucking in a mouthful of water when she felt pressure against her crotch. She spluttered around her mistake, starting to thrash when she noticed claspers coming out of the cloaca and gripping onto her hips until she felt webbed hands on either side of her face, pulling it up to meet the dark reddish-amber eyes of the merperson. They pulled her in for a deep, passionate kiss and Nico tensed for a moment, still struggling for air and against the merperson's hold, but eventually, she relaxed into it, slowly realizing she could breathe. When the merperson pulled away, Nico blinked at them, bewildered, but they just smiled and ground their cloaca against the front of her wetsuit, putting some delicious pressure on her clit. She twitched, letting her head fall against the bars, before grabbing onto the merperson's hips and starting to grind back.

The merperson nudged at her face with their own until she was looking up at them and they could kiss her deeply again. She groaned into their mouth and felt the sharp teeth in their grin against her lips. A clawed hand started sliding down from where it grabbed onto her waist, tracing over the curves of her body until it was pressing against the top of her pubic mound. Nico felt sharp claws dig into the material of her wetsuit and she grabbed onto their wrist, making them pull back from the kiss to blink confusedly. She glowered at them, shaking her head slightly while maintaining eye contact, hoping they'd get the message. She wasn't exactly eager to get back on deck with holes in the crotch of her wetsuit. They seemed to understand and pulled back, going back to just feeling her body and grinding. When Nico was sure that they weren't going to do it again, she let herself lean back into the contact and lose herself in pleasure again.

After that, it wasn't much longer until the merperson was coming, cloudy looking bursts of their spend shooting from their cloaca and into the water. Nico groaned into their mouth again, shuddering as they kept grinding against her in the afterglow, and sliding their hand back down to rub her clit through her wetsuit until she was satisfied as well. She gasped and panted, hanging onto the bars of the cage as her thighs trembled and her stomach clenched with the strength of her orgasm. When she finished, she collapsed against the bars to keep her upright until she finally felt steady enough to stand again.

The merperson smiled at her, warm and loving, and Nico gave them a little grin back, sucking in a breath at how stunning they looked. But on this inhale Nico noticed the water she was pulling in felt much heavier and more suffocating. She tried to calm herself and just held the breath she had left. The merperson kissed her gently, then grabbed her respirator from where it was floating and blew into it hard, bubbles exploding from around the device with each exhale. After a few breaths, they put it back against Nico's mouth. She took a tentative breath and found that it had air like it ought to. Checking her gauge, she had just enough to last her ten or so minutes down here. She looked up just in time for the merperson to kiss her forehead softly and swim off with a wink. Nico stared after them for a few minutes, having trouble processing what just happened until she shook herself out of her daze. She needed to get back on deck, Taiga was probably an anxious mess.

She was right, once she got back up on deck, Taiga was on her, bombarding her with questions and checking her over for injuries. She just waved him off, and he backed off. But the questions didn't stop.

"What the fuck happened down there?" he demanded, "You made some weird noises over the radio and then went completely silent!"

Nico froze, eyes wide, and when she kept silent for a while, Hiiro made his way over with a hand out, "Let's go over the footage if you don't want to talk—"

Nico ripped the GoPro from her set up and threw it into the door leading below deck as hard as she could, then knelt down to struggle out of her reef walkers. Before Hiiro could go after it, she barreled past him, dripping wet with all 22 kgs of her equipment still on, "NO DON'T WORRY I'LL GET IT PROCESSED NO PROB, YOU GUYS JUST WORRY ABOUT THE CLEANUP AND STUFF," she scrambled downstairs, picking up the camera and dashing to her room.

Taiga and Hiiro watched her escape for a few moments, stunned into silence until they looked at each other with matching confused expressions and shrugs.

**Author's Note:**

> Some art of shark Poppy. I'm still unsure on how I want her to look which is why I didn't bring up dorsal fins, but just to give a better idea than how I probably described, haha [(link)](https://droppedalltheseoreos.tumblr.com/post/620212822057598976/some-tiger-shark-mermaid-poppy-and-scuba-diver)
> 
> Also if anyone’s curious about the research teams and who’s what in the bigger scope of this AU
> 
> Emu, Parad, and Kuroto on one boat  
> Taiga, Hiiro, Nico, and Kiriya on the other  
> With Haima, Maki, Jungo, Nisshi and Saki at the research facility
> 
> Poppy and the rest of the bugsters are all merpeople


End file.
